In a discussion last week about what the Health ministry needs to do to achieve its set mandate, a lot of suggestions were made. These revolved around increased funding, more workers and better human resource terms, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Public-Private-Partnerships(PPPs).
One rather interesting recommendation however, pointed out that our biggest weakness as a sector is lack of “strong leadership”.
Looking back over the last two decades, health workers have had rather lukewarm representatives at the top. None has been able to stamp authority or impose a rudder to steer us on a positive trajectory.
With the Cabinet Secretary(CS) being a technocrat, the Principal Secretary (PS) is the gear connecting the health system to the decision making organs. Depending on the sector one is in, many Kenyans would not name five out 10 former Health CSs or PSs.
Yet most, even remote areas know the former Education CS.
Amazing, not for his personality, but the profound impact of his docket’s reforms.
While each leader has their own unique style of working, what sets them apart is the “investment” in what they are tasked to do, not in time but energy and dedication.
Healthcare is arguably the most important ministry, though not heavily funded compared to the others, it has the potential of determining millions of lives: babies, children, teenagers, pregnant mothers, adults and the elderly.
Is success a matter of personality or the style of leadership of selected individuals?
Each regime has had its own visible star performing CS or PS.
In the Kibaki era, “Hurricane Karisa Maitha” easily stood out as a darling of the masses in achieving a semblance of order in the chaotic Local Authorities Ministry. His quest to fix the rot was memorable. His omnipresence was impressive.
Maitha would appear from nowhere to fix a stubborn problem. He would ask those responsible to sort it out and promise to return for assessment. He would not forget.
Before Devolution, James ole Kiyapi also had a similar knack. Episodes of him turning up announced in public hospitals to assess the level and quality of service delivery were common.
You cannot solve what you are not invested in, and to achieve that, one needs less meetings and more time on the ground to grasp the reality of problems.
Most of our problems do not need extra funds to solve. Easily one achievable goal is entrenching a professional HR and work ethics service delivery metric open to scrutiny across the country.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
